Building a Better Future for Your Community
Our Mission & Vision
At ADG (Arnett Development Group), we strive to empower municipalities, regional coalitions, and community leaders to build better futures. We do this through expert analysis, strategic planning, and aligning vital funding with local needs so that vacant land, underserved downtowns, and communities with unrealized potential can transform into vibrant, resilient places.
We believe in:
- Potential: Ensuring that economic opportunity is not just for affluent places but anywhere, including high need, low-capacity communities.
- Partnership & Collaboration: Working together with local leaders, nonprofits, funders, and development professionals so that development solutions are grounded in community priorities.
- Evidence & Feasibility: Applying data, research, and rigorous analysis to create plans and projects that are not only visionary but also practical.
- Sustainability & Resilience: Promoting strategies that are economically viable, environmentally responsible, and socially beneficial in both the short and long term.
Your Support Team
With well over a century of combined experience in planning, economic development, and redevelopment, the ADG team brings both depth and diversity of knowledge to every project. We understand the complexities of revitalizing under utilized assets—whether vacant buildings, aging infrastructure, or downtowns that have lost retail, business, or community energy.
We serve as strategic partners, trusted advisors, and facilitators helping communities not only envision what’s possible, but also navigate the practical steps needed to get there.
Stuart Arnett, Managing Partner
Stuart shepherds the team and collaborates on project strategies at ADG. His experience combines decades of business, state and local initiatives:
- Multiple terms as Director of Economic Development for the State of New Hampshire, under three Governors, shaping economic policy, business outreach, and state level development strategy.
- Director of Development & Planning for the City of Claremont: during his tenure, he oversaw dramatic growth in the city’s development authority net worth while achieving year over year reductions in the municipal tax rate.
- Served on key boards including the Community Development Finance Authority and the Boston Federal Reserve Community Development Advisory Group.
- Through Stuart’s leadership, ADG combines strategic vision and analysis with hands on implementation to ensure community leaders aren’t just dreaming but doing.
What Distinguishes the ADG Mission?
| Key Attribute | Why It Matters |
| Local Expertise + Statewide Reach | Deep familiarity with New Hampshire’s rural & semi‑rural dynamics, plus a network that spans funders, developers, public agencies and chambers of commerce. |
| End‑to‑End Support | Research & feasibility → planning → funding alignment → implementation. You’re not left wondering “what’s next?” |
| Strong Partnerships | Collaboration through networks like the Better Future Alliance, public agencies, and funders ensures resources, credibility, and capacity. |
| Proven Track Record | Projects that reverse decline, restore vibrancy, and create economic stability – all backed by measurable outcomes. |
Our Roots
ADG grew from a vision that New England’s small and rural communities, hold tremendous untapped potential. We help towns and regions identify opportunities, secure funding, and execute high impact projects.
Stuart Arnett and his collaborators have led ADG through roles in state leadership, municipal planning, and community development finance. These experiences have shaped how ADG operates: always listening first, then bringing strategic clarity, and facilitating action.
Organizational Values
- Innovation: We stay curious about new funding models, design ideas, policy tools, and partnership structures that can amplify impact.
- Results driven: Ideas are only useful if they lead to outcomes such as better downtowns, restored properties, increased investment, shared costs, and more vibrant neighborhoods.
- Service Integrity: We believe honesty and ethical behavior build the trust that community work requires. Communications are open and transparent.
- Respect: Every community has a unique culture; we listen carefully, value local knowledge, and seek locally appropriate solutions.
Our Team & Network
Our core team works with a network of collaborators: planners, economic analysts, designers, funders, state and federal agencies. Through our affiliation with the Better Future Alliance, we connect communities to a broader economic network committed to revitalization and comeback.
Getting to Know ADG
What does the work look like? Our Projects page showcases case studies that reflect how we take ideas from conceptualization all the way through funding, planning, and implementation—delivering tangible outcomes in communities across New Hampshire and beyond.
Curious? Interested in exploring how ADG might support your community or organization? Let’s talk.
